1623.—"... An Indian Gentile Lord called Rama Rau, who has no more in all than 2000 pagod [paygods] of annual revenue, of which again he pays about 800 to Venktapà Naieka, whose tributary he is...."—P. della Valle, ii. 692; [Hak. Soc. ii. 306].
1673.—"About this time the Rajah ... was weighed in Gold, and poised about 16,000 Pagods."—Fryer, 80.
1676.—"For in regard these Pagods are very thick, and cannot be clipt, those that are Masters of the trade, take a Piercer, and pierce the Pagod through the side, halfway or more, taking out of one piece as much Gold as comes to two or three Sous."—Tavernier, E.T. 1684, ii. 4; [Ball, ii. 92].
1780.—"Sir Thomas Rumbold, Bart., resigned the Government of Fort St. George on the Mg. of the 9th inst., and immediately went on board the General Barker. It is confidently reported that he has not been able to accumulate a very large Fortune, considering the long time he has been at Madrass; indeed people say it amounts to only 17 Lacks and a half of Pagodas, or a little more than £600,000 sterling."—Hicky's Bengal Gazette, April 15.
1785.—"Your servants have no Trade in this country, neither do you pay them high wages, yet in a few years they return to England with many lacs of pagodas."—Nabob of Arcot, in Burke's Speech on the Nabob's Debts, Works, ed. 1852, iv. 18.
1796.—"La Bhagavadi, moneta d'oro, che ha l'immagine della dea Bhagavadi, nome corrotto in Pagodi o Pagode dagli Europei, è moneta rotonda, convessa in una parte...."—Fra Paolino, 57.
1803.—"It frequently happens that in the bazaar, the star pagoda exchanges for 4 rupees, and at other times for not more than 3."—Wellington, Desp., ed. 1837, ii. 375.
PAGODA-TREE. A slang phrase once current, rather in England than in India, to express the openings to rapid fortune which at one time existed in India. [For the original meaning, see the quotation from Ryklof Van Goens under [BO TREE]. Mr. Skeat writes: "It seems possible that the idea of a coin tree may have arisen from the practice, among some Oriental nations at least, of making [cash] in moulds, the design of which is based on the plan of a tree. On the E. coast of the Malay Peninsula the name cash-tree (poko' pitis) is applied to cash cast in this form. Gold and silver tributary trees are sent to Siam by the tributary States: in these the leaves are in the shape of ordinary tree leaves.">[
1877.—"India has been transferred from the regions of romance to the realms of fact ... the mines of Golconda no longer pay the cost of working, and the pagoda-tree has been stripped of all its golden fruit."—Blackwood's Magazine, 575.
1881.—"It might be mistaken ... for the work of some modern architect, built for the Nabob of a couple of generations back, who had enriched himself when the pagoda-tree was worth the shaking."—Sat. Review, Sept. 3, p. 307.